extemporize

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   To perform or speak without prior planning or thought

   To perform or speak without prior planning or thought; to act in an impromptu manner; to improvise.

   • "Will you please tell me whose music you have been playing?" . . . "It's nobody's, miss." "Do you mean you have been extemporizing all this time?"
   • But while some of his predecessors liked to extemporize, Obama prefers the message to be just so.
2. 2

   To adapt, improvise, or devise action or speech in an impromptu or spontaneous manner.

   • As the music came fresher on their ears, they danced to its cadence, extemporizing new steps and attitudes.
   • The small jelly-speck, which we call the amoeba, has no organs save what it can extemporize as occasion arises.
   • The wine runs into pitchers, washing-basins, shards, chamber- vessels, and other extemporized receptacles.

The neighborhood

• synonymimprovise
• synonymthink on one's feet
• synonymdevise
• neighborextemporaneous
• neighborextempore
• neighborextemporization
• neighborextemporisation
• neighbortemporalize
• neighbortemporize
• neighborplay it by ear
• neighboroff the cuff
• neighboroff the top of one's head